13 comments:

I saw this the other day, and I have to say that he makes a great point. Not only did Carr bring this team back, but he stood tall doing it. I am quite sure that Urban Meyer could never be accused of doing such. For the "nay sayers" who will say it was the team itself who rallied and pulled through.......remember, we are quick to blame the "coach" for losing the games.......we need also give credit when we see what we have this year and that is the team we thought we would see at the beginning of the year. They had good reason to roll over and wait for next season, but they stood tall and showed the nation who they are and that credit has to go to Carr too.

I agree, he's done a great job rallying the troops, and I love Lloyd to death. HOWEVER, there are a couple pretty important games left this season, so I'd wait to give him too much credit until, let's say, Nov. 18?

It seems like Michigan football is at the same sort of crossroads that its men's basketball program found itself in last season.

Tommy Ammaker was (still is) a good man. He did nothing to disgrace himself or the university. He cared about his players. He had a winning record.

But he didn't win enough to advance the program to a higher level. He had reached the point where it looked like the program was stuck in neutral with little hope for advancement. As an avid basketball fan, I could see this for years, but I admired Michigan for giving him the opportunity to make it work.

I see a lot of the same things with Carr. He's done a fine job righting this ship. He's won you a national championship. You should name a building after him somewhere on campus.

But once this season's over, some difficult decisions are going to be made within your athletic department - one way or the other.

Coach Carr is clearly a man of integrity that has done a very good job for the most part, and most schools would love to have Michigan's program.

Still, the bowl losses and opening disaster against App State tell us there is another coaching level that we're not getting. We (probably) all want there to be: a defense built with more speed, better utilization of what is usually a great set of receivers, and (most importantly) a more consistent preparation for games.

If Carr stays it is really OK, but it would be nice to see him get results in the last two games of the year (that being tOSU and what ever team we face in a bowl game that has a mobile quarterback).

liking Lloyd as a person and respecting him for what he has done for michigan, both on and off the field, does not exclude you from thinking time has come for a change. i don't think you have to "hate" him, or think ill of him to think he needs to move on.

there's a scene in the movie "Gandhi" w/ Ben Kingsley towards the end of the movie. it's during the end of WWII and he and a colleague are discussing the end of the war and setting a schedule for expelling the Brits. his colleague urges immediate/rash action to gain independence. Gandhi responds (paraphrasing here, can't remember the exact quote): we've been down a very long road together w/ the British. they must go, but when they go, i want them to go as friends.

sort of feel the same way about Lloyd. he's gotta go, but i'd prefer he be happy about it.

It's a sad day when I agree with Trev Alberts. After viewing that clip, I am reevaluating my life priorities.

Even so, it's pretty dumbfounding to me that this is even still an issue. I understand the App State trauma; it killed my Labor Day plans and resulted in a three-day binge of sleeping, drinking and darkness. But for Christ's sake, a loss is a loss, and the practical effect was less than it would have been losing to Penn State in triple overtime. It isn't the program's fault (or ours) that this team was ridiculously overhyped at the start of the season when the entire defense was a question mark. Shit happens, God laughs, and if Gingell knew how to kick, we wouldn't be having this conversation -- except that we probably would, because there'd be caterwauling about how "unacceptable" it is to lose to another West Coast team.

This program and its fans do not know pain. Take a look at the ND, Nebraska and 'Bama alums who prioritized the perfect over the good. They're all still struggling to right the ship. There is literally no difficult decision to be made in the Athletic Department -- that's not how it runs things. Lloyd could've gone 5-7 and not have a job security issue. Plus, few sane coaches (Tedford, e.g) are going to be eager to head a program where a 10-2 season and a Rose Bowl appearance is viewed as failure when similar results would make them a folk hero at 100 different programs. (Again, see coaching-search problems at ND, 'Bama and Nebraska; the halo over the traditional powers isn't what it used to be.) Whether Lloyd elects to retire at the end of this season or whether the transition is another year or two down the road, the idea that we'll go from being consistently excellent to something even better has no nexus to reality. Routinely winning the conference title and contending for the national championship once or twice a decade is not the stuff of failure, or even mediocrity. It's amazing that this needs to be pointed out.

As to bowl records: Bo went 5-12.

Seeing comments in favor of a switch is a little like overhearing someone talk about dumping his Berkshire-Hathaway stock to invest in a dotcom that has some sexy buzz. It's possible that 5-10 years from now we're going to look back on the last 10 years as a golden age for Michigan football, but I'm also terrified of what's going to happen to this fanbase if the program ever has an actual setback.

counting the 2001 season, we're 55-21 (or 9-3.5) thru last year. we've had one season (last year) w/ less than 3 losses in that time period.

we have competed for a national title past september in one of those seasons (last year). we have won only one bowl game (against ron zook, at that) in this time. we have beaten tosu once in this time period. we have won our first road game once in that time period.

certainly, one way to avoid a "crash" would be to adjust expectations that 1-5 in bowls, 1-5 against tosu, and that 9-3.5 is "great" and be grateful for it.

i'm not interested in that, frankly.

and Bo's record is just that. i don't compare carr to yost or crisler. different eras create different expectations.

and i don't think hoping to go .500 in bowls and against tosu is all that unreasonable. i don't think shooting for an above .750 winning percentage is way beyond reasonable. and i don't think lloyd is going to achieve any of that from here on out.

do you think psu or fsu have really done well by coaches hanging on forever? i don't think we shall either.

While I agree Carr has done a great job of rebounding from the 0-2 start, you still need to factor in the losses to ASU and Oregon. I remember years ago when Marty Schottenheimer coached the Redskins and they were 5-5 after starting out 0-5. Columnists wanted to give him the coach of the year award for having the team rebound the way they did, neglecting the fact that he lead them to five straight losses as well. So while Carr has done a great job of righting the ship, someone like Mike Bellotti, Jim Leavitt, or Rich Brooks would have to be ahead of him.

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